Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

family / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
18
Jul 19

Catching up on pictures

Those first few days, or hours or minutes, back, you always have to catch up on things. Email, mail voicemail, mail mail, memos, procedures, whatever it is. Sometimes it takes longer than others. I got lucky this time, and by running through vacation photos and videos for so long that stretched out the whole trip in my mind a bit. Why, yes, those seven days did turn into two-and-a-half weeks somehow.

We were promised some other photos, too. If those come through, we’re going right back into the old vacation by way of memory.

Until then, though, we’re back here. And in this space we must fill our time with something. Today and tomorrow, are a few things that I’ve drifted through while still on island time.

This is a parking deck on campus. Masons have been reworking the brick and it looks like they are coming to the end of this particular project:

It would have been weird if I’d stood there and watched that all day, but the light and water droplets dancing around were rather mesmerizing. I just saw it at the right time of day.

Unfortunately, the timing was wrong on this. No matter how much I bent, leaned or twisted I couldn’t get them all in, or keep the sun out. But they’re keeping the sun out. And if you need a visor, you go with something classy like this:

“Thank you for being a — ” BUNNY!

Some time ago I picked up this old poster of the county. It’s a print of the way things were in 1856. I finally put it up in my tiny little office and give it a glance every now and then. Now, these people aren’t my people, but it is interesting to see the names of some of these land owners who are now just road signs to most weary commuters. My uncle worked with a man from here and that man’s family name is on this map, showing the plots of land his ancestors owned once upon a time.

The whole thing shows land owners names, first and last. And I’ve been able to pick out a few important ones. These people sold a key parcel to the university, for example, and that man was the local director on the Underground Railroad, such as it was through here. I spent some time trying to discern exactly where our modern house is. There is one road that, if it hasn’t moved in 170 years, helps get you close. But the waterways aren’t terribly accurate on the map. Finally I figured it out, and I know the name of the man that owned the land and I think I found out where he’s buried, too. Again, not my people, but still somewhat interesting.

One thing I’m struck by, when I stare at that map: there aren’t enough people named Enoch anymore. It stems from a Hebrew word which means dedicated.

One of my great-great-grandfathers was also named Enoch. He was born 15 years after that map was drawn, and lived in a different place entirely. Neither place has enough kids named Enoch these days. It sounds like the strongest, sturdiest word in the world. Just say it out loud a few times.

adventures / photo / Roatan / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Jul 19

About the place we stayed

Our trip — this is the last one, I promise — was to an island off the east coast of Honduras. Roatan is the location. The place we stayed was a lovely facility called Anthony’s Key Resort. We landed on a small airport at Roatan, resort staff picked us up at the airport, fetched our luggage and pointed us to their shuttle and we stayed there the full week. We never saw the mainland. Indeed, with the exception of our dives and the zip lines we never left the resort.

This is entirely possible if you’ve packed halfway decently. And even if you need an extra snack, or some souvenirs or the occasional odd-and-end you may have left at home, the resort itself might be able to sell you what you need.

You can go into the nearby town, but there’s not really any reason. Here’s why.

This was our view, breakfast lunch and dinner:

Anthony’s Key has a restaurant on site, is apparently building another and prepared meals are included in your trip.

If you aren’t diving, or enjoying the pool, kayaking or paddleboarding, or sitting in a hammock, you’re looking out at that view over your choice of two or three entrees. (The food was quite good, too.) Indeed, most people visiting there are divers — it is a dive resort — but they have built out some nice amenities for the non-diver in the family, if you have that sort of vacation-planning challenge. There’s fishing, excursions off the resort, the pool, the bar and an incredibly pleasant atmosphere. Also there’s a museum and a full-on dive school on-site. (But maybe have the non-divers learn at home.)

I mentioned that the most of the rooms were on a cay. Ours was. We were close to the pool, but we never heard the kids at play from inside the room. I took this picture standing on the big island, but what you see is where most of the rooms are.

The resort operates an on-demand ferry 24 hours a day. (There’s also a medical clinic on the island, with regular hours and an on-call doc, just in case.) The ferry is a small outboard motor boat and will accommodate about 10 or 12 people at a time. It takes maybe 20 seconds to get across.

My mother visited this resort years ago and she really enjoyed it. From hearing her talk, to seeing it today, I have a sense that the place has really matured. It is a full-service resort, and we had a great time. Here we are getting off the ferry to go up to dinner one night, and you can see the edge of the cay on the right:

We enjoyed a nice off-season deal. There are plenty of positive online reviews about Anthony’s Key and Roatan has, for a long time, had a positive reputation for the quality of its diving. This is what really sold us: We talked to the dive shop owner in Bloomington and told him where we were thinking of going. Part of his job is to run a store, sure, and part of his job is to teach people how to dive, absolutely. But another standard dive shop service is operating dive trip junkets. The guy here has been going to Anthony’s Key for almost 30 years. Raved about it. Told us, by name, who we’d meet first, where they’d point us to second and who we would meet second. He spelled the whole thing out. We weren’t on this trip through his shop, but he couldn’t stop singing the place’s praises. You figure anyone who keeps going back every year for decades must have found something he likes. As his excitement grew, so did ours. Having spent a week there, it’s easy to see why everyone always comes back with such high opinions of the place. The living is comfortable, the diving is nice and easy.

Most importantly: While you are there it is easy to get on, and enjoy, island time.

Or, shorthand: If we’ve gone there it is probably great. The Yankee plans terrific vacations.

adventures / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
16
Jul 19

Dolphins, dolphins, dolphins

On the last day of our now long-gone vacation, indeed, the last thing we did before catching the shuttle that took us to the airport, was to play with dolphins.

The resort is on an island and there are two little cays off the key. One of the cays has most of the guest quarters. The other has the dolphin enclosure and a few beaches.

At the enclosure, there are a pod of dolphins living in a nice safe little environment. The dolphins could come and go as they please, which is easy to see when you can study the entire structure. But, the dolphins are living the good life. Food comes to them. Predators can’t bother them. In fact, our local dive master is a regular visitor to this resort and he told us that at least once the dolphins have noticed and pointed out a problem with the enclosure to the animal scientists.

Hey, over here. See that? Could you fix that? And bring more fish. Thanks.

So there’s a dedicated staff that cares for the dolphins, and the behaviorists work with specific ones in terms of their care, socializing them for human interaction and showing off some tricks, but these are very much still wild creatures. These dolphins aren’t domesticated.

We got to hang out with a three-year-old female, still very much a child.

She was often being interrupted by a slightly older male dolphin, at least until the momma dolphin stopped by. Go figure.

They did some tricks and showed off some cool dolphin facts. And then, we got to snorkel with the pod for about 45 minutes. They swim alongside you, check you out, take reeds of long sea grass from you, and otherwise let you watch them do the aquatic swimming things dolphins do all day.

It was a nice way to wind down our visit. When our time with the dolphins was up we caught the ferry back to our room, hastily rinsed off, made sure the last of our things were backed and then caught the ferry back to the island. The shuttle was waiting on us. Everyone was waiting on us. We’re important like that.

Then the airport, checking in, security, customs a two-hour wait for our flight, the trip to Atlanta, sitting on the tarmac in Atlanta (great to be home!) because Delta and/or their contractors (depending on which proffered explanation you liked) couldn’t get their act together. Fortunately we had a long layover at Hartsfield. Instead of spending it in a lounge, we spent it on our first plane before just making it to another terminal, grabbing a sandwich and getting on the flight to Indianapolis. We arrived there on time, drove back in the darkness and got in around midnight, started laundry, went to bed, wandering how we’d spent a whole day like that and dreaming already of taking another trip.

adventures / friends / memories / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
15
Jul 19

Don’t call me Zippy

Since we couldn’t dive that Friday afternoon, we went into the tree tops. The Yankee and I and a couple from our boat and two people we’d made friends with over the course of the week. We’d taken a shore dive with them, had a few dinners together and commiserated about that one bratty kid that was intent on ruining everyone’s trip. Anyway,

Eight of us from the resort went to this particular zip line experience. I think The Yankee and I were the only one who had never done this before. And, of course, she was great at it immediately, looking like Indiana Jones up there:

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a brief video clip:

They had us pulling down on that cable to slow down, and depending on the line you were on and the distance and speed you covered, you were supposed to start the slow down at different times. I wasn’t always clear on when that time was. And, also, I kept over-rotating somehow. It was all great fun.

We did something like 13 zip lines on our way from one of the island’s high points down to sea level. And when we were all safely on the ground we met a new friend:

That evening we had dinner with our New Mexico friends above and most of the survivors from our dive boat. Someone there had the coolest idea among all of the long-shot “Let’s all get together and do this again one day” notions. They brought along postcards to share contact information. I have to remember to do that, otherwise, it’s business cards a-plenty, and who needs that? The last thing you’re trying to do on vacation is remind yourself of overcooked job titles. We just need emails for Box folders and a postcard gives you all that extra space for a personalized message, and dive jokes, too.

And, yes, I think I can get another two or three days worth of photos out of our trip. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about dolphins!

adventures / Friday / photo / Roatan / SCUBA / video — Comments Off
12
Jul 19

Our final dives in Roatan

We had our last two dives of the trip last Friday. While every other day had been three or four dives, the last day is on a bit of a clock. Again, because of the chemistry going on in your bloodstream, you’re not supposed to dive within 18 or 24 hours of your flight. So we had two dives on Friday afternoon and other activities until it was time to leave.

So our last two Our last two dives featured El Aguila, or The Eagle, is regarded as one of the best diving sites around the island. El Aguila is a 230-foot long freighter. It was hauling concrete and bound for Haiti when it wrecked. It stayed where it stopped for a long while and had quite the adventure as a former freighter before being purchased, cleaned and put at this final spot, sunk at 110 feet in 1997. It sat upright for about a year, and then Hurricane Mitch blew through in late 1998 and snapped the weakened ship into three pieces.

We also saw plenty of fish and groupers, plenty of garden eels and a very curious green moray eel. You can see some of that in this video:

Here we are, diving off down the bow of The Eagle:

Doesn’t it look spooky and cool?

Here’s The Eagle amidships:

Count your coral while you can:

I certainly was:

It’s just so pretty:

Thanks for following along this week with last week’s diving adventures. Next week we’ll show off a few other things from this trip and, eventually, get back to normal.

I guess. If we must.